Jul
29

Open Question: Astrology And Marketing - Would You Be Seen Sporting Your Zodiac Sign On A T-Shirt?

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rhino-shirt-sm.jpgLast night the soldier and I were talking about astrology and t-shirts…

“It doesn’t work that way,” I said. “People who try to market using astrology do not understand astrology. They make a uniform number t-shirts, the same number of each sign and they are never going to sell them. They fail to understand that no Capricorn is going to walk around with Capricorn on their shirt. Really, there are only about 3 signs you can sell merchandise to, I’d say. In any quantity anyway. So pretty much anyone who tries to do this winds up losing their ass.”

“Well I wouldn’t wear my sign,” he said. “I’m not going to walk around with a bull on my shirt.”

I laughed because he walks around with a rhino on his shirt most days… it’s his favorite. “No, I guess not,” I said.

“But I would wear a scorpion. I like a scorpion as a symbol,” he said.

“And you could get away with that because you have a Scorpio Moon. Or you can wear whatever the hell you want but you see the problem here. People by and large are not going to wear their sign on their chest so marketer after marketer fail with their zodiac lines because they don’t understand this. I am quite sure it will always be this way.”

Would you wear a T-shirt that broadcast your sign? Why or why not?

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  |   Posted at 9:35 am  Email This Post

35 Responses to “Open Question: Astrology And Marketing - Would You Be Seen Sporting Your Zodiac Sign On A T-Shirt?”

  1. joana says on 7/29/08 at 9:42 am:

    Well, I am fortunate to be a Sagittarius, which I think is a sign with a good market and public image (regardless of the real qualities of the sign, which are basically the same amount for each sign). It’s a centaur, it’s a lovely mythological image. Many other signs don’t have such an appealing façade.

  2. wyrdling says on 7/29/08 at 9:44 am:

    no. people get waaay too many bad ideas about aries. it’s like when i walked around with red hair. i don’t get so many bugs to zap now that i’ve reverted to brunette. :P

    and virgo is just as bad. in a very different way, of course. i am not a sexless counting machine, ok? just sayin’…

  3. Shannon says on 7/29/08 at 9:45 am:

    Actually considering a tattoo that does just that …. not sure, though, if it’s a warning, a boast, or an identification. Probably all three. *chuckle*

    But T shirt? Only if it had sparklies. (gemini joke …. )

  4. Becca says on 7/29/08 at 9:53 am:

    Sure. Maybe if I had Libra up front on a shirt, people would stop asking me to decide where we ought to go for dinner.

  5. Jessica says on 7/29/08 at 10:00 am:

    LOL Becca. No kidding. Now, THAT would be useful. I can’t deal with that question.

  6. Elsa says on 7/29/08 at 10:03 am:

    I’ve got that problem too. I just say this: “If we are going to wait on me to decide something, we’ll be here all day. Just pick it and let’s go!”

    I usually also thank the person for making decisions for me because I am polite and all. ;)

    (at least most the time)

  7. Jeffrey Kishner says on 7/29/08 at 10:10 am:

    I got a free tote bag from intoxicatedzodiac.com with a fish on it that I regularly use for grocery shopping. It’s probably not the best “marketing” image for Pisces, at it also features wine glasses. (Although most apropros given the zodiac stereotype!). I wouldn’t wear a Pisces t-shirt, though.

  8. Charlotte says on 7/29/08 at 10:17 am:

    No. How tacky.

  9. Korellyn says on 7/29/08 at 10:32 am:

    Absolutely not! If I walk around with Gemini plastered all over me, nobody will every believe me again!

  10. Loonsounds says on 7/29/08 at 10:40 am:

    Not my real sign. I like the gylph for Pisces if they weave it into a cool design or something. Most people don’t know what it means anyway.

  11. Lynn says on 7/29/08 at 10:59 am:

    “Not my real sign.” LOL Loonsounds! Is that Scorpio talking maybe?

  12. seekingzen says on 7/29/08 at 11:04 am:

    I would happily wear an Aries shirt, but it would have to be really cool. :-D

  13. shell says on 7/29/08 at 11:18 am:

    I think it was about 2003/2004 when it was trendy to wear your sign (the trend lasted about one season). As much as I wanted everyone to know that I was a Leo, I just couldn’t get myself to buy one of those sequined shirts!! Thank gosh I didn’t.
    I did want to get a red Leo symbol tattoo on the inside of my wrist, but I don’t think as a teacher I’d be taken seriously.
    So then I was thinking of getting a small tattoo somewhere hidden of the Leo, Capricorn, Scorpio symbols (my Sun, Moon, ASC). Still contemplating that one.

  14. Ana says on 7/29/08 at 11:26 am:

    “people would stop asking me to decide where we ought to go for dinner.”

    lol! For some reason I always end up having this question (or a variation of it) posed to me. It doesn’t bother me, but I always wonder if it’s sincere or not. I actually enjoy making the decisions and planning things, and it seems weird to me why they would give up that opportunity when they could do it, and so willingly too! But my friends say it’s stressful to decide and they’re relieved when someone else takes charge. Imagine that. Needless to say, I’m an Aries w/lots of Capricorn…and I’m put in charge whether I volunteer for the job or not. heh :)

  15. Ana says on 7/29/08 at 11:27 am:

    But no, I wouldn’t wear my sign on my shirt. Too exposed, who knows what other’s might think?

  16. zelda says on 7/29/08 at 11:50 am:

    heck, no! then everyone would think it was license to use this pisces as a door mat.

  17. midara says on 7/29/08 at 12:09 pm:

    Heh, I actually used to have a Leo shirt. It was sort of classy, though! Right?

  18. Jeremy says on 7/29/08 at 12:34 pm:

    My guess would be that all the fixed signs would be okay with this idea, except maybe Taurus, which is too fixed. Just fixed enough is the order of the day.
    My daughter who is 12 and just finished reading my copy of Stephen Arroyo’s Chart Interpretation Handbook had a view on this the other day after I mentioned your tee-shirt to her (I have Libra and I can’t decide), she thought it would be cool to have one that said “Danger: Taurus Grazing” and seemed quite keen on wearing that.
    I have no problem with wearing the Omega glyph for Libra (as I am a Libra) and in fact my father’s watch was an Omega and I was always fascinated by the glyph on his watch even as a child and it struck me when I watched the X-Files that Fox Mulder’s watch was an Omega. My wife went out once and bought me a very expensive watch but it wasn’t an Omega and I was mildly upset, although not truly because I don’t believe in expensive watches (but if someone was going to spend all that money…” She is also a Libra and it was exactly on her birthday while we were at a restaurant celebrating that burglars broke into our house and stole my watch the day after the strap broke (which is why I wasn’t wearing it).

    So, yeah. What was the question again?

  19. Foxxy says on 7/29/08 at 12:35 pm:

    If I liked it enough, maybe. Even though I’m capricorn . . Uranus in scorpio in the 11th? I kinda like getting peoples reactions “Whhhhhat happens when I do THIS!” heheheh.

    I wouldn’t want to explain anything about it though so it’d have limited exposure. I did have a necklace with saturn on it that I wore all the time for about two years. Then it was up to me to either say “Well I just thought it was so pretty with the rings and whatnot” or “Its the planetary ruler for capricorn . .”

  20. s says on 7/29/08 at 12:51 pm:

    You are so right about Caps not wearing their sign on their chests! How obnoxiously obvious. What? Like I want someone trying to pick me up just coz of my sun sign? Right. Get real…

    But I might wear a Laura Roslin/Airlock for President 2008/Caprican Party tee… Talk about a Pluto in Capricorn statement.

    http://www.glarkware.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=3845

  21. Alma says on 7/29/08 at 1:14 pm:

    I was going to write that I would never wear a shirt advertising my sign…but then I remembered actually doing this. Someone gave me a shirt with a mysterious crab scuttling under the moon, and I wore it (this was in high school). And I actually purchased a t-shirt from Forever 21 with a crab and the statement “I’m not shellfish.”

  22. Jennifer says on 7/29/08 at 1:17 pm:

    I would probably wear some sort of Taurus-themed thing, but not an outright bull. Bulls just aren’t that cute. Taurus Grazing amuses me, though, as does “I have Libra and I can’t decide.”

    Best astrology merchandise ever: Hot Topic has a bumper sticker that says “Never #@$% With A Scorpio.” Had my Scorpio ex had a car, I would have gotten it for him.

  23. llama says on 7/29/08 at 1:18 pm:

    Jeremy, lol

  24. Loonsounds says on 7/29/08 at 1:52 pm:

    Lynne, It must be Scorpio talking or something! My sun sign, I never just hand that out, because astrology is so freakin’ complex, and most people don’t get that. I learned it long ago. You see their face, and it’s like, “Oh, I love those,” or “oh” disappointedly “my mother in law is this sign so you must be like her. If only they knew.

  25. Loonsounds says on 7/29/08 at 1:55 pm:

    Shell, you might want to watch for a red tattoo on the inside of your wrist. From a distance, you’ll have all kinds of people running up to you and trying to commit you for being suicidal.

    I think the idea of a really creative tattoo is cool, I’d do it near my foot of course, but I have to wait until my mother dies because she would be so damn distressed by me getting a tattoo that I can’t bring myself to put her through it.

    I like Alice’s tattoo on L word. It a wreath around her upper arm. But of course, Alice would look great in anything.

  26. june says on 7/29/08 at 1:56 pm:

    I started to think no, but then it occurred to me that I HAVE worn a gemini shirt. Dark purple with the disney siamese cats on it - you know, appealing to my scorpio side. It was a kid/teenagers’s shirt, but it wasn’t too tacky outside of the disney relation.

    In any case, I don’t mind “broadcasting” that I’m a gemini because it’s unexpected. Scorpio would be another fun one just for the tail end of the “m”, but I have a shirt with a big male chicken on it to MORE than make up for that little slice of subtle lewd.

    Actually, I think a lot of my non-professional branded attire has a scorpionic or saturn feel to it… Hm…

  27. Loonsounds says on 7/29/08 at 1:58 pm:

    Eek, Ana, I can stand it when mutable Virgo takes charge of my life, and I even welcome it, but Aries plus cap, your new nickname from me would probably be “BOSSY” after the first 15 minutes I knew you. God knows what your nickname for someone like me might be.

  28. Snapdragon says on 7/29/08 at 2:05 pm:

    Yeah, that’s so right Loonsounds. As I’ve said before, people want to peg you. “Oh, you’re this,” or “you’re that,”. When we are all really so much more (well, especially if you have advanced).

    I mean knowing a person’s sun sign certainly gives you a heads up, but I’m almost surprised that we don’t all go around giving out our rising sign instead. That’s the face we present socially, isn’t it?

  29. Conny says on 7/29/08 at 3:31 pm:

    I would not wear my zodiac sign on my T-shirt, but I was thinking on creating one with my chart on the back, to make sure that I get the right followers, what do you think? Leo, Aquarius rising.

  30. Ana says on 7/29/08 at 4:00 pm:

    lol Loonsounds. That’s why I wait till others present their suggestions first, I’m asked, or I suggest something last. Otherwise I’m sure I would get the same nickname ;) My presence itself seems to have this effect even before I’ve said anything…so I tone it way down.

    But everybody is different and opposites tend to attract. I don’t actively seek out being in charge of most things, but I end up with it anyway. Most of the people who gravitate toward me tend to be less decisive, so when I present an idea they go with it w/o much comment. I do wish they would give some feedback or suggestions of their own sometimes. It does work out most of the time though for both parties - they get a decision and a plan and I get to take some action and do something :)

  31. llama says on 7/29/08 at 6:42 pm:

    Nah. It would either say “CANCER” or have a picture of a crab. Either way, unattractive.

  32. Althera says on 7/29/08 at 8:21 pm:

    Lynn - when I read this (without reading the posts above first) ““Not my real sign.” LOL Loonsounds! Is that Scorpio talking maybe?”

    I read it as though you were responding to someone who was saying that they’d wear a shirt with a zodiac sign that then said somewhere on it “Not my real sign”.

    I think that’s best idea (zodiac shirt-wise) ever!

    It would be a guessing game - some people would buy their own sign and wear it with that on it just to confuse people. And people who wish they were some other sun sign (or just admire another one) would buy the one they liked - and have license to wear it.

    And some people would just enjoy the confusion straight out.

  33. Althera says on 7/29/08 at 8:27 pm:

    As far as wearing a shirt with my true zodiac sun sign on it - I would if it were cool (and it was flattering overall - I have issues w/ standard T shirt cuts).

    Cool for me would be, maybe, showing the symbol with some positive and sassy note about the sign that it usually “likes about itself”.

  34. Loonsounds says on 7/29/08 at 10:45 pm:

    I really like your ideas Althera, a t-shirt which is not really a t-shirt (I am in total agreement with you about the t-shirt thing, I buy mine from Victorias Secret) with some stuff about a sign and then the words “Not my real sign.” I have never seen anything like that and I’ll be it would be a huge conversation piece and also, people who want to meet someone or flirt, they would have fun. I want one already!

  35. Lynn says on 7/29/08 at 10:59 pm:

    Loonsounds I know what you mean about the disappointment. I actually make the same mistake myself - I suppose it’s just nice to see a pattern somewhere - a synchronicity.

    I remember my Astrology teacher saying to me that because I have a Scorpio moon I would feel extremely uncomfortable talking about my feelings. Your comment rang that bell for me, I apologise for the assumption.

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